Resilient routing using MPLS and ECMP

Abstract-The increasing commercial importance of the Internet together with a rising number of real-time and mission-critical applications make fast resilience mechanisms a major issue for IP network planning and operation. Current IP-layer rerouting is too slow to meet these requirements. Therefore we propose a new approach combining two protocols readily available in every router: The fast local reaction of the EqualCost-Multiple-Path extension of OSPF operating on a network with its connectivity enhanced by the introduction of a limited number of MPLS paths in critical areas of the topology. We describe an algorithm for the determination of these MPLS paths and its optimization to obtain an equal loading of the physical network links. Numerical results on the basis of real network topologies show that already a small number of MPLS paths can offer sufficient connectivity for fast protection via ECMP. Furthermore, it can be proven that the bandwidth overhead necessary for this enhanced network resilience is as small as possible

Effects of Anacetrapib in Patients with Atherosclerotic Vascular Disease

BACKGROUND: Patients with atherosclerotic vascular disease remain at high risk for cardiovascular events despite effective statin-based treatment of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels. The inhibition of cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) by anacetrapib reduces LDL cholesterol levels and increases high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels. However, trials of other CETP inhibitors have shown neutral or adverse effects on cardiovascular outcomes. METHODS: We conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial involving 30,449 adults with atherosclerotic vascular disease who were receiving intensive atorvastatin therapy and who had a mean LDL cholesterol level of 61 mg per deciliter (1.58 mmol per liter), a mean non-HDL cholesterol level of 92 mg per deciliter (2.38 mmol per liter), and a mean HDL cholesterol level of 40 mg per deciliter (1.03 mmol per liter). The patients were assigned to receive either 100 mg of anacetrapib once daily (15,225 patients) or matching placebo (15,224 patients). The primary outcome was the first major coronary event, a composite of coronary death, myocardial infarction, or coronary revascularization. RESULTS: During the median follow-up period of 4.1 years, the primary outcome occurred in significantly fewer patients in the anacetrapib group than in the placebo group (1640 of 15,225 patients [10.8%] vs. 1803 of 15,224 patients [11.8%]; rate ratio, 0.91; 95% confidence interval, 0.85 to 0.97; P=0.004). The relative difference in risk was similar across multiple prespecified subgroups. At the trial midpoint, the mean level of HDL cholesterol was higher by 43 mg per deciliter (1.12 mmol per liter) in the anacetrapib group than in the placebo group (a relative difference of 104%), and the mean level of non-HDL cholesterol was lower by 17 mg per deciliter (0.44 mmol per liter), a relative difference of -18%. There were no significant between-group differences in the risk of death, cancer, or other serious adverse events. CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with atherosclerotic vascular disease who were receiving intensive statin therapy, the use of anacetrapib resulted in a lower incidence of major coronary events than the use of placebo. (Funded by Merck and others; Current Controlled Trials number, ISRCTN48678192 ; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01252953 ; and EudraCT number, 2010-023467-18 .)

Effects of Mycotoxin Contaminated Diets on Immunosuppression or Interference with Other Physiological Parameters in Commercial-Strain Laying Chicks, Pullets or Hens

The principal objective of this investigation was to evaluate the effects of mycotoxin contaminated diets (deoxynivalenol (DON)), aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), and fumonisin (FUM)), with or without the use of a commercially available deactivating compound (DC), in young pullets and replacement laying hens on performance, reproductive, serological, and histopathological parameters. In trial 1, experimental treatments consisted of control, low toxin (1 µg DON/g + 1 µg AFB1/g), and high toxin (2 µg DON/g + 2 µg AFB1/g) diets. Pullets fed the high toxin diet had reduced (P<0.05) body weights compared to control and low toxin diets at d 14, 35, 49, 56, and 63. At d 21 and 28, there was a significant interaction observed between mycotoxin and DC inclusion in body weights. Following necropsies (d 35 and 65), relative liver weights and histopathological liver tissue damage were increased (P<0.05) in pullets fed high toxin diets when compared to control and low toxin diets. Relative kidney weights were increased (P<0.05) due to high toxin diet at d 65. Expected negative effects of toxin administration on titer development were not observed. The only interaction observed between mycotoxin administration and DC inclusion in trial 1 was on body weights. In trial 2, experimental treatments consisted of control, DON (9 µg/g) challenge, AFB1 (2 µg/g) + FUM (54 µg/g) challenge, and a mixed challenge (6 µg DON/g, 1 µg AFB1/g, and 27 µg FUM/g). All mycotoxin diets fed to hens negatively influenced (P0.05) by all mycotoxin diets weeks 6 through 10. Relative weights of the liver and kidney were increased (P<0.05) by AFB1+FUM challenge weeks 4 and 9 compared to control diet. The data reported in this study demonstrate that dietary DON and / or AFB1+FUM influence some performance, reproductive, histopathological, and egg quality traits, but by and large, replacement layer pullets seem to be relatively resistant to the mycotoxins evaluated in this trial at the described levels of administration

Methodology and input availability parameters for calculating OpEx and CapEx costs for realistic network scenarios

The availability requirements for today&apos;s networks are very high. Higher availability often comes with a higher cost. We describe several steps required for estimating the costs of realistic network scenarios. Capital expenditures (CapEx) and operational expenditures (OpEx) are classified. An activity-based approach is used to quantify the cost of the event-driven operational processes such as repair and service provisioning. We discuss activity duration and availability parameters as required input data, which are necessary for calculating the processes&apos; costs for realistic network scenarios. The relevant availability measures for an IP-over-Optical network are described using a triplet representation with optimistic, nominal, and conservative values. The model is applied to a reference German network scenario

deus ex machina

Das Papier greift mit seiner Konzentration auf die digitale Archivierung kommunaler Unterlagen einen Teilbereich des gesamten Problemfelds auf. Seit längerer Zeit entstehen in den kommunalen Verwaltungen digitale Unterlagen, sei es in unstrukturierten File-Ablagen, sei es in Fachanwendungen oder schon als digitale Akten. Die kommunalen Archive müssen sich darauf vorbereiten, auch solche Unterlagen in Kürze in digitaler Form zu übernehmen. Das Papier zeigt die besonderen kommunalen Herausforderungen auf und skizziert Lösungswege. Es knüpft dabei an die im Rahmenkonzept umschriebenen kooperativen Lösungsmöglichkeiten an und konkretisiert diese, untersucht aber auch alternative Wege. Die Landesfachstelle für Archive und Öffentliche Bibliotheken Brandenburg stellt die Studie hiermit der Öffentlichkeit vor. Sie verbindet damit die Hoffnung, dass sie Entscheidungsträger und Archive in den Kommunen Brandenburgs anregen möge, sich verstärkt den Problemen der digitalen Archivierung zu widmen und langfristig tragbare Lösungen zu finden. Schließlich sind auch viele kommunale Unterlagen, die in der Gegenwart in digitaler Form entstehen, um es mit den Worten der UNESCO-Charta zur Bewahrung des digitalen Kulturerbes zu beschreiben, „von dauerhaftem Wert und dauerhafter Bedeutung und bilden deshalb ein Erbe, das für gegenwärtige und künftige Generationen geschützt und gewahrt werden sollte.

MPLS Protection Switching vs. OSPF Rerouting A Simulative Comparison

Abstract. Resilience is becoming a key design issue for future IP-based networks having a growing commercial importance. In the case of element failures the networks have to reconfigure in the order of a few hundred milliseconds, i.e. much faster than provided by the slow rerouting of current implementations. Several multi-path extensions to IP and timer modifcations have been recently proposed providing interesting alternatives to the usage of of MPLS below IP. In this paper these approaches are first described in a common context and then compared by simulations using very detailed simulation models. As one of the main results it can be shown that an accelerated update of the internal forwarding tables in the nodes together with fast hardware-based failure detection are the most promising measures for reaching the required reconfiguration time orders